I can’t believe it took me this long to realize this: in Outside Men, instead of having players choose their membership in either the ALIVE or DEAD team, it should be determined for them by the mechanics! And not immediately, but over the course of a campaign. (This may require some prohibitions, a la Dirty Secrets, on what you can narrate conclusively about your character.)

I credit Jason Morningstar with inspiring me here again, with his recent posts about a design in progress (I might link that when story-games.com is running less slowly) that is almost more Shadows Over Camelot and Betrayal at House on the Hill than it is an RPG. I think I like the Betrayal at House on the Hill method better for the Outside Men context – rather than a player knowing from the beginning that his or her character is a turncoat, the rules will reveal it at some point in the middle of the game. Whether I will go for Betrayal’s thing of making the change public, I don’t know.

Also I need to write some more of the story into the rules. Infiltration should be the name of the game, and all of the interpersonal effects that come with it – loss of your social network when you go into deep cover, increasing loss of your clarity of self and of identity. Spione does a bit of this, but it is not so explicitly about the PCs having multiple identities… just multiple lives of a certain kind.

Can anyone else think of game mechanics about double agentry and/or secret traitors? I’m not looking specifically for mechanics that would fit the tone and story of Outside Men just yet… just looking for ideas.

I have not had much occasion to work on Neoborn Genesis Honor Blade the last two weeks because I decided to undertake the Sight and Sound design challenge. I have not posted any of my issues with the challenge to this group because I was not sure that it was appropriate. But I talked to Ryan and he said I should post to you, fellow Master Miners, to see what the group thinks about posing thoughts/questions/issues relating to game design for games that are not listed next to our name over there on the right.

I would think that next April, there will be a number of us participating in Game Chef and I would hope that we could lean on each other for extra support and advice. I know there’s another game contest in October I am interested in participating in and I would like to be able to ask questions to the group. Any thoughts?

So I’ve been debating posting this because I think it makes me sound whiney, but I am just wondering. I’ve written two games that I have gotten playtested and the experience for both has pretty much been:

a while back Ryan had mentioned coming up with a logo to put on our books once they’re published. I know not everyone was into the idea, but I thought I’d take a shot at making something. There’s two versions. Let me know if you guys have any ideas besides these or if you think I should tweak them:

Guys, now that Gen Con is over, if you have ashcans left over, I would love to have a copy of each. I will try to playtest them for you, but I want them more as a memento of the awesome job you, my fellow Master Mines, put into getting your games ready; because I am very proud of each and every one of you, and I want to be able to show everyone what awesome work you did. So, let me know: my PayPal is ready.

For me gencon was really productive. I sold quite a few copies and I’m fairly certain I’ll get some feedback. Even if I don’t though, I had a fantastic playtest with jeff, judd, their friend kevin and my friend Emerson. The ideas that came out of that session were totally worth the work I put into getting the ashcan out. I’m also glad I got it out when I did because another book, Urchin came out that was uncomfortably similar to mine. Its different enough in its execution that I’m not too worried. Still, it threw me for a bit of a loop.

So where do I go from here? I’m eventually going to change my status back to active, but not yet. I’m going to take some time to play some stuff and let feedback roll in. I’m also going to create a website for the game where I’ll be posting all the drafts that will be coming out. I’ve already got ideas, but I’m going to get some distance before I dive back in.

Meet the Miners

We are fledgling game designers, each working on a single new design in public (but really working on it in this group… but really working on it in public). The complete current drafts (or as complete as they stand) are in the Projects page. We also tell you what we’re about and how we do things around here on the Mission Statement page.

Master Mines Reservists
These are Master Mines members who have moved into the Publishing phase and are busy with that work or who are taking a break from designing or have bowed out for various reasons. However, these Reserve Miners remain close friends of the group. Reservists can be called in at any time to fight in case of an interstellar invasion by receiving the call: “Master Miners Mobilize!”